AN/ Well then... long time no see guys! God, it's been nearly a year since I last posted. And god, what a year it's been.

Chaotic is probably an understatement when it comes to describing 2020 but is also about as succinct as I can make it.

I did however make it to uni! I'm now studying at the University of Edinburgh with the hope of one day becoming a clinical embryologist (purely because I want to make babies for same sex couples). With the pandemic as it is though, I'm living back at home with my parents so have found a lot more time to enjoy writing and get some ideas to get this fic back up and running.

Writing about something other than bacteria in science experiments has been a welcome change, but I have a genuine worry my skills have got rusty. Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter (that is if there is anybody left to read it!).

I hope everyone is as okay as they can be at the minute, and keeping safe.

Here's the first of a series of new chapters written for I'm Still Here: I hope you enjoy guys!


Kevin Keller becoming mayor of Riverdale was not something Cheryl had envisaged in her teenage years. Ever the musical theatre nerd, Kevin would have been remarkably well suited to a life in New York, directing and producing Broadway shows. The boy had always been passionate about the theatre, and the last Cheryl had heard of him, he had been avidly working in California theatres as a side gig while he completed his law degree. At least doing law at UCLA was an opportunity for Kevin to nurture his dramatic streak, before returning home after college to take the crown of Mayor.

His first motion? To bury the darkness that had consumed the latter half of his teenage years, overturning the fear lurking in the streets and building a town safe for the next generation of kids. Working alongside Riverdale Elementary, he rapidly devised plans to establish a youth club, and suddenly – thanks to Andrews' Construction's devotion to its town – a new play area was built in Pickens Park.

Although miles away in New York, Cheryl had more than willingly contributed to Kevin's project, and had been genuinely touched when Betty sent a clipping of the Register. Kevin had named the play area after her brother. The Jason Blossom Play Area. All around the play area were benches, each with a plaque bearing the name of a friend they had lost during the dark years. Never would they be forgotten.

Kevin had vowed to honour the dead. To ensure they were remembered by everyone, and that they didn't die for nothing.

Slowly but surely, Riverdale rose – a phoenix from the ashes – finally taking steps out of the darkness into the light.

It may have taken eleven years, but it was happening. The difference between the Riverdale of her youth and the town her son was going to grow up in was unbelievable.

Watching her son on the swings with his cousins, Cheryl didn't even bother trying to supress her smile. JJ was going to grow up happy. The darkness that had destroyed her – and everyone else's – childhood wasn't going to taint his.

Jason was going to grow up surrounded by love and family ties stronger than blood.


"Alright Kev, will you just turn this way," Tony gestured, pointing towards the school. She knelt down, fiddling with her camera before she pressed a few buttons and there was a loud click. "That should be decent, one second…"

"Are you always this particular Topaz?" Kevin asked, and Fangs – legs dangling over the wall – chuckled.

"Kevin, love, we've been through this, if Tiny Topaz is taking photos she won't stop until she gets *the* perfect shot."

"If I'd known being a mayor meant being photographed so much, I may have gone to the gym before I ran as candidate."

"Oh yes," Fangs scoffed. "Because you would 100% have been working out."

Tony had to stifle a laugh at her fellow Serpent's antics, smirking at the outraged look on Kevin's face. "You and I both know, Fangs Fogarty, if young Mayor Keller was to start attending the gym, none of these contracts he's been signing would ever get a look in: his eyes would be glued to the ripped men lifting weights."

Flexing his muscles, Fangs frowned. "Maybe I should get heading to the gym…"

Toni shook her head, smiling at Kevin. "That's the photos all sorted, I think."

"Do they meet your exacting standards Topaz?" the mayor asked, approaching the girl to take a look.

"Definitely Kev, they perfectly sum up Jughead's article."

"Which is?"

"That you are working wonders for the students of Riverdale High. I wish you'd been Mayor when we were there!"

"GPAs are up by at least double on average, and more and more students are headed off to college every year now we have the outreach programmes established. It means so much to me so many kids will get to have that experience of living elsewhere."

Toni grimaced slightly at Kevin's words, nodding briefly before making her excuses and quick departure. The topic of college was a particularly sour one for Toni. Coming from a background of little privilege, a fancy college education wasn't exactly an option for the young Topaz. Not many Ivy League institutions were particularly enamoured by ex-gang members either. Even with her phenomenal SAT results, Toni didn't qualify for scholarships. Her applications were met with the same line in every rejection: "you posed as a promising applicant, but we didn't get the impression that your heart was in it."

Senior year had been tough. Anybody close to Tony knew there was a reason her heart wasn't invested into college applications. The girl's heart had been superglued back together, its uneven fragments punching into her chest every time she had a lead about Cheryl and stabbing her when they all led to a dead end. Long nights were spent with Toby, searching for answers at the bottom of a beer bottle, wondering if she'd been quicker in the barn things would have ended differently.

Who knows: maybe if she had moved faster, maybe she'd have gone to college?

Nevertheless, she wouldn't change a thing about her job. She loved working at the Register, primarily because it let her pursue her passion: photography. For a small town newspaper, it paid reasonably well, and it meant constant banter with one of her closest friends. Especially in the college years - as Katya left to study medicine and King disappeared on a creative writing programme – the Register provided a constant for her; with her and Jughead cultivating a new image for the paper under the cautious guide of Alice Cooper.

At first, Tony hadn't anticipated the relationship she would later develop with Alice in the slightest. The serpent had always seen Alice Cooper as a stereotypical northsider: middle-class, anti-Serpent and conservative. As she spent more time in the Register, Toni was quickly proven wrong, and – when Betty left for Yale – she found something in Alice she hadn't had in a long time: a mother.

Adopted by the older woman, Toni and her brother – Toby – would often be seen going to the Cooper house for Sunday lunch and, eleven years later, the former Serpent was fondly referred to as Alice's third daughter. They had a close bond, and – as her closest friends slowly left Riverdale – Mrs Cooper became a confidant of Toni's.

Now, more than ever, Toni valued her trust in Alice Cooper. She was positive the older woman didn't have a clue about Cheryl's whereabouts, unlike – it seemed – all her other friends.


The leaves were crunching under Jason's feet as he kicked the soccer ball, dribbling it in the direction of Dagwood. "Hey Dag! I'm coming for you!"

In the corner of his vision, Jason registered a movement near the trees, but he shrugged it off, his focus fixed on his cousin's position, calculating how best to kick the ball into the goal.

Taking a risk, he dribbled it close enough to Juniper that she could attempt to tackle, waiting for her to lunge before kicking it up, smacking his head against it with as much force as he could, hoping it would get past Dagwood and hit the back of the net.

A familiar adrenaline rush seemed to pulse through his veins, and Jason felt himself beam as the ball crashed against the net.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLL!" He cheered, running around like an airplane in celebration. "JJ – 2, other Blossoms – Nil!"

"You're too good!" Dagwood groaned, picking up the ball and throwing it at his cousin. With an expert hand, Jason caught it, spinning it on his index finger: exactly how his Uncle Jughead had taught him.

"I'm better than you!" The redhead teased, mock punching the older boy, and the two of them walked over to Juniper before heading in the direction of their mothers to seek out lunch.

As the trio walked back towards the benches, they were blissfully unaware of the woman slowly tracing their steps.


That Sunday morning, Penelope had gone on a walk to investigate the maple trees on the edge of Picken's park, knowing they could all be utilised to rebuild her maple syrup empire. Every drop within them belonged to her. Or at least, they did in the absence of her deviant daughter.

Running the maple syrup had been… challenging… since the ghastly affairs of twelve years ago. Exposed for her abusive parenting and murderous ways, Penelope Blossom's many criminal offences had caught up to her, throwing her before the courts. There were, of course, means of persuasion, and it helped the judge in question was a previous… client… of hers. Some favours of a more… intimate… nature were of course given to the man, and her sentence suddenly seemed a lot more manageable. Of course, there was the issue with restoring Thornhill, but that had been quickly resolved.

For all the town had seen a rejuvenation with the young Keller boy at the helm, there was still an undeniable fear around the Blossom name – a certain amount of influence that fear allowed Penelope to exert. Brick by brick, Thornhill had been reconstructed, slowly removing the evidence of her daughter's fiery temper.

Released from prison a few months later, Penelope Blossom once more occupied her seat of power, desperate to restore her damaged reputation to its former glory. However, there were certain… matters… to be dealt with.

Initially, the absence of her daughter had confused her. For Cheryl to have left Riverdale without any footsteps was an entirely foreign concept to the older woman. In her youth, Cheryl had been renowned for her pretentiousness, and if the girl had been accepted into an Ivy League college, Penelope had zero doubts that it would have been plastered over every wall of Riverdale High.

Of course, it wasn't as if she could walk up to any of her daughter's former friends to ask them about young Cheryl's whereabouts. Excluded from the town, Penelope was treated as a pariah. Alice Cooper had truly gone to town when covering the court cases, and every Riverdale resident knew exactly what went down in the maple syrup barn that night.

Just her wandering around the park was enough to turn people's heads, and – when they saw her – enough to trigger the whispers. The kinder ones, at least, whispered. Some were far beyond caring whether the ageing woman heard them and would freely air their views on the "crazy Blossom woman".

The play area was an frequent haunt for Penelope. For all her desire to bury the past with Jason's body, she couldn't help but feel drawn to it, the only palpable reminder of her son. Sometimes, she was gifted with a view of her grandchildren, Juniper and Dagwood. They were teenagers now: the chubby toddlers long since vanished in a haze of baby powder and diapers. When she'd first been released from prison, and she caught a glimpse of them with Polly, it had taken her a while to notice them as her own. Neither of them possessed the signature red hair synonymous with the Blossom dynasty, much to her disappointment. Nor did they walk like Blossoms. They had too much Cooper in them, and she blamed Alice Cooper for that entirely. Her restraining order meant she risked being sent back to prison if she was so much as seen in the distance by Polly: not exactly an ideal grounds for being a doting grandmother.

Watching the twins playing soccer that Sunday, she couldn't help but think a good bit of discipline was what the duo needed. Blossom children weren't brought up to lose, and Dagwood – well – he was losing badly at this. Separating the leaves slightly, Penelope craned her neck to try and get a better view: the sight she saw shook her to the core.

There, kicking the soccer ball. Leaves crunching beneath his feet. The freckles. The red hair. The slim, tall, stature of the young boy. It hit her like a shot in the heart. He was the double of Jason; this boy almost her son resurrected. The likeness was uncanny, scary even.

Disorientated, she watched the trio play, grimacing when she heard Dagwood yell the name Jason and the redhaired boy answer. This was too much. Were the medicines the doctor prescribed causing hallucinations?

Mentally, she tried to run through the side effects of her various medications, hoping they would answer the questions for her. All the while, her gaze was fixed on the boy, curiously watching as he walked further and further away.

What she saw next stole the breath from her lungs. There, in the distance, was Polly: a familiar silhouette the older woman had spent the Spring desperately avoiding as she tried to watch her grandchildren. And next to her? Could it be?

Cheryl was taller than she remembered her being. Her red hair still burning in the sunlight. Her skin still pale. Red lipstick as always. But still… there was something about her daughter she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was the confidence. That was it. The last eleven years had been kind to Cheryl: far kinder than they had been to herself. She could see it in everything about her daughter: the younger woman was happy. Too happy. Probably something to do with that disgusting Topaz girl, Penelope scoffed as she stared at Cheryl.

It was then she noticed how Cheryl wrapped her arm around the ginger boy, and how they fist bumped when he approached. Feeling her lips curl, Penelope grinned maniacally. Suddenly, everything made sense.

Well, well, Cheryl. She thought. Maybe you weren't such a failure after all…


AN/ WELL, WELL, WELL... I wonder what our dear Penelope has hidden up her sleeves... any ideas guys? Drop some comments and share what you're all thinking!

Thank you so much for reading this, and I really hope you all enjoyed it! I'm currently finishing up the next chapter so hopefully I'll be able to post it in the next few days, but *cough, cough* I know reviews can always speed the process up a little!

As always, like, follow and review: and stay safe guys!

Have a lovely day,

- EJP